Some Thoughts

Everyone who enters the kitchen would draw atleast a few buckets of water from the well. Even then none of those large vessels would get filled. The menu was almost the same everyday, but a large quantity of food was to be prepared.

The men of the family, Ammoomma's two elder brothers stayed in another section of the house. They were never seen entering the main section where only women and children stayed. Even the well had an access from outside, and a male servant would be filling water in their bathroom. I loved watching this and would imagine when I grew big enough, I would fill those vessels atleast once. The buckets going down and hitting the water with a big splash and coming back filled with water was an amusement for me. One day I heard mother explaining to someone how a servant girl fell in the deep well. Pappachettan, Ammoomma's younger brother tied a chair on ropes and he went down in that chair and saved the girl. It was a real heroic act of Pappachettan. He was a chronic bachelor and a Gandhian. He wore only white khadi. He was always seen on his easy chair reading books. He knew carpentary and made a few tables and chairs. Another of his hobby was gardening. A portion of the frontyard was kept for his garden. Sometimes there would be a lot of roses with flowers, sometimes some other flowering plant. Whenever he gets angry at something, he would cut off all the plants. He would shout at Ammoomma and Paruamma too. So in a way I hated him. Many times I secretly wished he would fall into the well and die.. I was so dependent on Ammoomma, she was everything to me, that I started disliking anyone who annoyed her. Many a times I would stamp Paruamma with my small feet for her grumbling at Ammoomma.